MIDLAND COUNTY — Leslie Borrego lives in a modest house south of the city limits, built 24 years ago by her late husband Raúl, who died unexpectedly from an aneurysm four years ago.
The walls, decorated with framed portraits of Raúl, have provided shelter to Borrego and her growing family of six kids and three grandchildren.
Like thousands of other Hispanic families who live in unincorporated parts of the state, often referred to as colonias, Borrego’s family water source is a nearby well managed by a third party. And for the last three years, the water piped into her home, as well as her neighbors, contained traces of arsenic and other chemicals above the mandated state standards, according to records from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ.
Borrego and other residents say they never knew.
The well’s former operator, Ramón González, never alerted them, residents say. Neither did the state agency supervising him. The commission said it did its part by issuing a $1,300 fine in 2013, along with a court order, which is currently pendi